


First Kiss

by ami_ven



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: mcsheplets, Established Relationship, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 18:25:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11583633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: Rodney’s first kiss turns out to be even more than he remembers.





	First Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJ community "mcsheplets" #076 "pre-Atlantis"

Rodney clutched his airline ticket tightly as he studied the departures board— five hours until his flight was scheduled to leave. Five hours to wallow in the misery that had been the so-called ‘advanced physics’ camp.

He should have known that even at a science camp, he’d be considered a loser. He was weeks shy of fifteen, a little under average height and a little over average weight for his age, but he was already smarter than the other kids, high school juniors and seniors, and it was hard to fit in when they resented him for being better than they were. He was smarter than the councilors, too, but at least they had the professionalism not to short-sheet his bed.

No, they just drove him to the airport five hours early, while the other kids were still singing campfire songs. Rodney tried not to let that hurt.

He put his ticket carefully into his carry-on bag and headed for the terminal. He’d almost given up on finding a place to sit in the waiting area, full of gossiping old ladies, families with crying babies, and businessmen talking loudly on brick-sized mobile phones, when he spotted an open chair next to a kid about his own age, who was reading a dog-eared paperback and wearing what looked like a suit.

“Hey,” said Rodney. “Can I sit here?”

“Sure,” the kid drawled, not really looking at him. “Knock yourself out.”

“Thanks.”

The kid slouched farther in his seat, rumpling his clearly-expensive suit, and scrubbed a hand through his dark buzz-cut. “You here for long?” he asked.

Rodney shrugged. “My plane leaves in five hours. Why?”

“Because this is a layover for my dad’s stupid business trip to Hong Kong and I’d really like to talk to someone under fifty who speaks English. I’m Shep, by the way.”

Rodney hesitated. “I’m Mac.”

“Mac? Like _MacGyver_?”

He scowled. “Shep, like the Three Stooges?”

Shep laughed. “That’s Shemp. Not a fan of _MacGyver_?”

“The science is questionable, at best,” said Rodney. “But I do like that he relies on his brain instead of just shooting things.”

“So, you like science,” said Shep.

“Not just science,” said Rodney. “I’m going to be a physicist, astrophysicist most likely.”

“Yeah?” Shep asked, but genuine, like he was really interested. “I—”

He broke off as a group of older ladies— several wearing t-shirts that said _Vegas or Bust_ — shuffled nearer. Shep stood and pulled Rodney to his feet.

“Ladies,” he said, with a dazzling smile. “We were just leaving. Please, sit down.”

“We weren’t—” Rodney began, but Shep grabbed his arm and towed him around a wide support column. They sat on the floor with their backs against its far side, facing the windows to the runway.

Rodney huffed as he sat down, but Shep ignored him. They watched the planes for a long moment, then Shep said, softly, “I want to fly.”

“Fly?” Rodney repeated. “Planes?”

Shep grinned. “Anything. Get working on that astrophysics, Mac, and someday I could fly a spaceship. Like the _Millennium Falcon_.”

“You do know that most of so-called science-fiction is, in fact, only loosely based on any kind of real science…?”

It quickly turned into a heated debate, moving from spaceships to space weapons to other science-fiction devices, when the PA overhead interrupted to announce the next flight boarding at this gate, and Rodney realized that they’d been talking for over two hours.

“Won’t your dad wonder where you are?” Rodney asked.

Shep snorted. “Hardly.” He leaned over Rodney to peer around the support column. “Yep, still on the phone.”

Rodney leaned over to look, too. One of the businessmen, the one in the most expensive-looking suit, was pacing near the far wall, mobile phone to his ear. Rodney turned back to Shep, intending to say something clever, when he realized how close they were sitting.

Shep seemed to realize it at the same time, because he pulled back quickly, scrubbing a hand through his hair.

“Hey, Mac?” he said, hesitantly. “Can I— Would you help me with an experiment?”

Rodney eyed him warily. “What kind of experiment?” he asked. “Because I should warn you that I’m deathly allergic to citrus and really not a big fan of public humiliation.”

Shep let out a shaky laugh. “Never change, Mac. Seriously.” He ran a hand through his hair again, then took a deep breath. “There’s… I haven’t told anybody yet, but I’m not going to business school and _definitely_ not whichever one my dad picks out. I’m going into ROTC and joining the Air Force.”

“So you can fly,” said Rodney. “On your own terms.”

Shep laughed again, a little less shaky. “Yes, exactly. I’m _going_ , no matter what my father says. But before I do, I’ve been wondering… I think that I… I mean, I do like girls, but I also… Would you let me kiss you?”

Rodney felt his heart speed up. He’d never been kissed before— although he’d been asked to tutor April Bingham in math next year, and he’d been hoping she would consider kissing to be a fair reward, if he could help her pass. He’d noticed that other guys were attractive, of course, but Rodney had a very healthy sense of self-preservation and he’d never acted on it.

He must have been quiet too long, because Shep shifted uncomfortably beside him and began, “It was just an idea, you don’t have to—”

He broke off as Rodney kissed him, just a dry press of lips, but it was soft and warm and Rodney closed his eyes, leaning into it. After a moment, Shep brought one hand up to the back of Rodney’s neck, and he shivered involuntarily.

Shep pulled back, but didn’t let go. “Results seem positive,” he said, a little breathless.

Rodney opened his mouth to reply, but the overhead PA speakers crackled, “ _Attention, all passengers…_ ”

“That’s my flight,” said Shep. “I gotta go.” He hesitated for a moment, then leaned in to kiss Rodney again. “So long, Mac.”

He was gone before Rodney could say anything in reply, and Rodney sat, watching the planes take off, until his own flight was called.

**The Present**

Rodney wasn’t sure how the subject of first kisses had come up, possibly some movie Teyla had watched with Cadman and a bunch of the female Marines, but he tried to pay attention to the story about the first boy she’d kissed, a shy sweet boy on one of the worlds the Athosians traded with, who had been culled by the Wraith a few years later.

“Melina was my first kiss,” said Ronon, and Rodney did pay attention, because Ronon talked about her more, now, but only with people he trusted. “I’d known her for years, but one day, she just grabbed my hand, pulled me aside after school and kissed me. We went together the whole time I was in training and I asked her to marry me a week after I graduated.”

“First loves are very special memories,” said Teyla. “John, would you share the story of your first kiss?”

Rodney snorted. “You were probably twelve, and she was the head cheerleader.”

“I was sixteen,” said John. “And she was a he.”

“Was he a friend?” Teyla asked.

“Nah, we’d only just met. My dad had dragged me along to some boring business trip and we had a layover in Toronto. There was another kid waiting for his flight, and we sat and talked for a couple of hours.” He paused, remembering. “I’d just decided I was going to go into the Air Force, but I was kind of thinking that I wasn’t, you know, entirely straight.”

“You’re _definitely_ not entirely straight,” chuckled Ronon.

“I didn’t know that _then_ ,” John protested. “Anyway, I asked if I could kiss him, and he kissed me. And it was… yeah, not entirely straight.”

He frowned. “I can’t remember his name, now. I made a joke about it, but it wasn’t a weird name, it was…”

“Mac,” said Rodney.

“Yes!” said John, grinning, then he frowned again. “Wait, how did you know that?”

“I was almost fifteen, and flying back from physics summer camp— and no, the physics did _not_ make up for the camping, or the sheer stupidity of the rest of the human race. But there was a guy at the airport who seemed reasonably intelligent. Said his name was Shep.”

“Oh, my god,” said John.

“I think it was the buzz cut, Sheppard,” Rodney continued. “There’s no way I could have forgotten that hair.”

Teyla looked between them. “John, Rodney, do you mean to say that you met before the day in Antarctica, with the Control Chair, you have told me about?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” said John. “And that was my first kiss. So how about yours, Rodney?”

“That was mine, too,” Rodney said. “ _You_ were mine.”

“Still am yours,” said John, smiling. He reached over to take Rodney’s hand, lacing their fingers together and running his thumb over the skin-warm metal of Rodney’s wedding band. “I always wondered what happened to that guy. Now I know that he lived happily ever after.”

Rodney tried to scowl at the sentimentality of that statement, but he knew he didn’t quite manage it. “Yeah, I guess he did.”

THE END


End file.
